Shri. M. M. Lawrence : We always remember India. (Interruptions).
Shri Yashwantrao Chavan : We are not objecting to your achievements in Bengal. Many congratulations for that; I am not grudging it. But it was as if a drama was made that you have got a national alternative and you are presenting it before Parliament as a national alternative. These, for whatever worth, are your achievements in your own small State compared to India.
Mr. Deputy - Speaker : They do not forget that West Bengal is in India. (Interruptions)
Shri Yashwantrao Chavan : I was talking about the performance of last year. The Finance Minister has given it in detail. He says:
“A large number of industries such as petroleum and petroleum products, fertilizers, steel, cement; vanaspati, sugar, newspring, caustic soda; Wagons and commercial vehicles are expected to achieve new peak levels of production.”
When I re-read his speech, I was a little proud of the achievements that our country has made/because these are not small things. It is not just merely a question of passing a law. It is a question of converting all forces if no more production in a very complicated and a in a very sophisticated system. The present world judges any country’s strength and progressiveness on the basis of the progress and production in these particular fields which I have just read out from the Finance Minister’s speech. I was also just like you when I was young. I was reading about the superior performance that was claimed by Soviet Russia. It was a performance particularly in terms of petroleum and petroleum products, steel and all those things. They were trying to impress the world that in a sophisticated system also they are making progress. The Finance Minister has to keep the same momentum looking to his instruments and tools and resources around his, whatever that he can make use of. When I said that he has done a good job, I said it not merely in a parliamentary sense; he has really done a good job. Inflation he has to flight. He has to raise resources. He did not hesitate to raise taxes. He did raise more than Rs. 500 crores.
He has done that. For what purpose? Because he has to make arrangements for making further provisions for certain new economic programmes. Naturally, if at all you have to assess or judge a budget, you can do it on the basis of what provisions are made for the vital areas of economic growth. That is one important criteria on. Then the second criterion, according to me, is what are the tax efforts without making it more inflationary. If it is inflationary, certainly one should be rather doubtful about its utility. I find that whatever tax effort he has made, he has made it so that there is no inflationary effect. Normally after every budget, there used to be speeches that prices have risen. I must say that at least in this budget session. I have not heard that complaint from any member. It is creditable to the Finance Minister that he has made his tax efforts without making any adverse impact on the prices and without causing difficulties to the proper people.